Good morning. Happy Saturday! I’m John Byrne. Before we get going, tap that ❤️ and restack this edition. The algorithms often bury our newsletters, and your share is what brings it back to the surface.
A forensic medicine professor who reviewed Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy files is about to present findings that question whether he killed himself. New polls show Democrats leading or tied in four of five deep-red states where they’re trying to flip Senate seats. Donald Trump went to Alabama to be thanked, and half the audience didn’t even show up. And Samuel Alito says he thought about retiring this year and will think about it again in 2027.
An urgent message before we get to the news. Today’s the third day of October and we’re still trying to catch up on our paid subscriber goals, which matters more than usual right now because Facebook has essentially cut off our distribution and Elon Musk is doing the same on X. Meta made that choice after we called Mark Zuckerberg out for cozying up to this president, and Musk is squeezing us while pouring millions into Republican campaigns. The only reliable way this reporting reaches you is the one they can’t touch, which is your inbox. A paid subscription runs about 22 cents a day, less than you’d spend on a single cup of coffee, and it funds a newsroom that answers to readers instead of owners.
For seven years, the official story has been that Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in a federal jail cell. A professor of forensic medicine is about to test that.
Michael Freeman is no small fish: he’s editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine and a professor at Oregon Health & Science University. He’s reviewed the New York City medical examiner’s autopsy files, which he got from Epstein’s brother, Mark.
He’ll present his findings at University College London on November 16. Then he plans to publish the research and the autopsy files themselves.
Freeman isn’t revealing his conclusions yet. But what he’s said so far is striking.
Freeman told CBS News he ran a biomechanical analysis of the ligature pattern. He also reviewed images showing injuries he says the medical examiner didn’t account for.
There were no photographs of Epstein’s body at the scene. The ligature, reportedly bed sheets, wasn’t preserved or examined.
“The death can only be a suicide or a homicide,” he said. His lecture will weigh the evidence for both.
Mark Epstein is less reserved. If a study like this had been done at the time, he told CBS, “they wouldn’t have come up with a suicide conclusion.”
He says he didn’t commission the report.
A note of caution. In May, a judge released an apparent suicide note that Epstein’s former cellmate claims he found. CBS hasn’t verified it.
But the most notorious prisoner in America died in federal custody, and nobody photographed the body or kept the bed sheets. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to want a second opinion.
Two weeks ago, we told you James Talarico led Ken Paxton by about three points in Texas. This morning, it’s six.
The New York Times and Siena University polled five reliably Republican states where Democrats are trying to flip Senate seats. Trump won all five each and every time he was on the ballot.
Democrats lead in three of them, are tied in a fourth and trail by a single point in the fifth.
In Texas, Talarico is up 51 to 45 among likely voters. In Alaska, Mary Peltola leads Sen. Dan Sullivan 50 to 43. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown is ahead of Sen. Jon Husted, 49 to 46.
In Iowa, Republican Ashley Hinson leads Josh Turek 48 to 47.
And in Kansas, the Rev. Adam Hamilton is tied with Sen. Roger Marshall at 45. Kansas hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1932.
Marshall, an obstetrician, sued hundreds of his own patients over unpaid bills, the Times previously found. At least 81 were arrested. His opponents produced a brilliant attack ad, and that’s become an issue.
Republicans can read polls too. On Friday, the Senate Leadership Fund pulled its money out of North Carolina and redirected it to Kansas.
The reasons aren’t mysterious. Independents across the five states favor Democrats by 24 points. In Ohio, which Trump won with 55 percent, his approval is down to 38.
About half of voters say they want a senator who’ll be a check on Trump; in Iowa, nearly one in five of Trump’s own voters want that check.
Now the cold water. Each state’s margin of error runs between 4.5 and 5.5 points, so most of these leads sit inside it. And Republican groups have reserved about $190 million in ads to rescue Paxton.
That’s $190 million to convince Texans that an impeached attorney general has good character. Good luck with that.
If you enjoy Raw America, join a media outlet that shares your values. Just 22 cents a day scores you a subscription for a full year.
With control of Congress on the line and a month to go, Trump spent Friday night campaigning in Mobile, Alabama.
Alabama — where Republicans aren’t in any danger.
It didn’t go well. According to Raw Story, MS NOW’s Jen Psaki aired footage from inside the venue showing rows of empty seats.
“Trump couldn’t even fill half the seats in the arena,” she said.
The venue holds 10,000 people. Psaki noted that when Trump came to the same city in 2015, he filled a venue three times that size.
“It’s like a visual representation of his political decline,” she said.
Politico first reported the rally plan last week, and strategists couldn’t figure out why he’d bother. Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross called it “straitjacket crazy.”
Former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock compared it to Republicans trying to “make the patient comfortable.”
Trump explained himself on Thursday. He’s going, he said, “because you have to thank these states that are with you a thousand percent.”
So Republican senators are fighting for their lives in Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa, and the president went looking for applause somewhere safe.
He got about half of it.
Samuel Alito is 76, has a book to sell, and has just confirmed what Washington has whispered about for a year.
He’s looking at the exits.
In excerpts of a CBS News interview released Friday, Alito said he thought about stepping down this year, and he’ll think about it again in 2027.
“It’s something that I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” he said.
This is where a Democratic Senate matters. If Democrats take control of the chamber next year and Alito leaves in 2027 or 2028, they can pull a Mitch McConnell and keep the seat open until the country elects a new president.
Then the Senate polls we just mentioned suddenly matter a lot more.
Alito waved the question away. It’s “too hard to predict” what the political situation will be, he said.
Trump, for his part, told USA Today this week he regrets some of his nominees, who’ve had the nerve to rule against him now and then.
Alito also defended his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. Going ahead with it after the draft leaked “required courage,” he said.
He added that the ruling cost him old friendships. “That’s something you have to live with,” he said.
Millions of American women are living with it too. And they didn’t get a book deal.
If this morning's edition told you something the billionaire-owned outlets would rather keep quiet, that's exactly the point. A forensic medicine professor preparing to challenge the official ruling that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, after nobody photographed the body or kept the bed sheets. Democrats leading Senate races in Texas, Alaska and Ohio, and tied in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1932. Trump flying to ruby-red Alabama for applause and failing to fill half the arena. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are burying independent reporting like ours on their platforms while cozying up to this president, which is exactly why a paid subscription is the most direct way to fight back. It costs about 22 cents a day, and the election is 31 days out.
One more thing before you go: hit the ❤️ and restack this edition. It’s what pushes these stories past the algorithm and into the feeds of people who’d never otherwise see them.
I’m John Byrne. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
